The speakers clear presentation illuminated the fact that population in Mongolia is growing, but the church is not. In 2011, there were 2.4% Christian by self-identification. Today there is much less that identify as Christian. They challenged us to make disciples and pronounced the truth that growth doesn’t just happen by osmosis, or by waiting for people to show up. He proved his point by asking: “Did you get curious and come to church, or did someone share their faith with you so that you’re sitting here today?”
Most in the room agreed someone had verbally shared their faith with them, which brought them to faith and salvation in Christ. The challenge was to make 12 disciples per year. If each month each believer was able to bring 1 person to Christ, that would be 12 per year! My own personal experience here is far less.
Two years ago I met a young man at our church’s Alpha outreach. He wanted an American friend to practice English. He later expressed help in securing a job in America. He got both. He got one more gift he may not have initially sought. Going throught he 4 spiritual laws, he wanted to pray the prayer at the end, and put his faith in Jesus to receive the gift of eternal life.
He is now helping with a little English club we started. When asked today if he was a believer in Jesus Christ, he could not answer. When asked if he remembered praying the prayer and meeting Jesus, he said he did. When asked if he was to die, where would he end up, he could not say. Some of what he chose to do two years ago could have been lost in translation, or culture, but that all happened in his own language! So what happened to his prayer and desire for eternal life through Christ?
His decision, exacerbated by COVID not attend or to attend church sparingly, not to read the Bible he said he needed and asked my help in selecting the right copy for him to buy, and my timidity in expressing the importance of both, most likely contributed to the withering of his fragile faith. He protested that he had shared his new faith with friends at the time, but they laughed at him. He told his parent that he made this step of faith at the time as well.
But without a mature believer or church to encourage and mentor these fragile seedlings die or get choked by doubt to fruitlessness. In order to be responsible and mature in sharing our faith, we have to follow up, explain, and remind people the important step they took.
We need to encourage, and bring them to church and the Word, like food and clothing to a newborn. As a baby needs milk, so new believers need spiritual food of the Word, and a family of believers to help them grow in the faith to maturity.
Two weeks ago, an 18 year old I will call Oscar, who plays soccer with my Football Plus sports ministry partner, came in the MAC Sports Center. We chatted for a little bit until I asked him if he’d put his faith in Jesus. He said he’s close. So I offered him a 4 spiritual laws booklet in Mongolian. He read the whole booklet out loud to me over the following 45 minutes. Asked what he thought of it, he answered he felt lighter and touched in his soul.
Last Friday, my friend Dawaa from Darhan was here in the same room talking with me. The 18 year old soccer league player walked in again. I introduced the two, and mentioned our conversation from the previous week. So Dawaa repeated the whole process from the week before. They he repeated it again sitting right beside this soccer player seeker. That day Oscar prayed to receive the gift of eternal life through Jesus!
Dawaa was getting ready to go, then Oscar’s friends came in. As they started to sit down, Dawaa took off his coat and began to talk with Oscar’s friends. Pretty soon he had Oscar taking his younger soccer player friends through the same gospel booklet. By the time I left, they were all announcing that they were believers in Jesus. I said I’d see them in heaven, and they all said they would, and hopefully again next week as well!
Today when I was reviewing the decision from two years ago with my first friend, I mentioned about Oscar’s decision, and reading through the tract with me two weeks before. So when Oscar came walking in the door, it was a divine appointment. I got the chance to ask him “Are you a believer in Jesus?” in front of the friend that could not answer that question an hour before. Oscar, once the question was translated into Mongolian, answered yes. When asked when he made that decision, he answered one week ago.
As much as I was wishing the answer would be two weeks ago with me, it was confirmed that it was the experience with Dawaa just the week before. This brings me to a point of the importance of Mongolians sharing their faith with Mongolians.
They know a real and lasting decision from a passing one. As much as I was wishing Oscar’s special feeling from two weeks before was a conversion, it was not. If it was, he would have interrupted Dawaa one of the three times he was having him read through the gospel tract last week.
The main point is that Oscar got a chance to confess the name of Christ before a person he had never met. When I asked if he had been able to share the gospel with anyone yet, he answered yes, but only one. I hope Oscar stays connected to our MAC Sports Center and minister Ganaa, his coach, where his faith can grow, and he can challenge others, and be challenged to continue to share the gospel and grow in it for God’s glory.
I think his free confession today to my friend who forgot he ever put his faith in Christ, will be used to revive the saving faith that first appeared two years ago. My first friend left today determined to read the Bible, and to share the gospel tract that started it all with his own parent. Please pray for the gospel to yield fruit as it is shared in our neighborhood and yours.
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